Fruits.

As I have before observed, it has not yet been discovered whether there are any indigenous fruits of any value in Australia.  In the colony of New South Wales there certainly are none; yet the climate is peculiarly adapted for the growth of every European and of many tropical productions.  The orange, the fig, the citron, the pomegranate, the peach, the apple, the guava, the nectarine, the pear, and the loquette, grow side by side together.  The plantain throws its broad leaves over the water, the vine encircles the cottages, and the market of Sydney is abundantly supplied with every culinary vegetable.

In a climate, therefore, so soft that man scarcely requires a dwelling, and so enchanting that few have left it but with regret, the spirits must necessarily be acted upon,—­and the heart feel lighter.  Such, indeed, I have myself found to be the case; nor have I ever been happier than when roving through the woods or wandering along one of the silent and beautiful bays for which the harbour of Port Jackson is so celebrated.  I went to New South Wales as I have already remarked, highly prejudiced against it, both from the nature of the service, and the character of the great body of its inhabitants.  My regiment has since quitted its shores, but I am aware there are few of them who would not gladly return.  The feeling I have in its favour arises not, therefore, from the services in which I was employed, but from circumstances in the colony itself; and I yet hope to form one of its community and to join a number of valuable and warm-hearted friends whom I left in that distant part of the world.

Remarks on emigration.

On the subject of emigration, it is not my intention to dwell at any length.  My object in these preliminary remarks has been to give the reader a general idea of the country, in the interior recesses of which I am about to lead him.  Still, however, it may be useful to offer a few general observations on a topic which has, of late years, become so interesting to the British public.

The main consideration with those who, possessing some capital, propose to emigrate as the means of improving their condition, is, the society likely to he found in the land fixed on for their future residence.  One of the first questions I have been asked, when conversing on the subject of emigration, has consequently related to this important matter.  I had only then to observe in reply, that the civil and military establishments in New South Wales, form the elements of as good society as it is the lot of the majority to command in Great Britain.

The houses of the settlers are not scattered over a greater surface than the residences of country gentlemen here, and if they cannot vie with them in size, they most assuredly do in many other more important respects; and if a substantial cottage of brick or stone has any claim to the rank of a tenantable mansion, there are few of them which do not posses all the means of exercising that hospitality for which young communities are remarkable.